Navigate:

Chuck Hagel stumbles on Iran questioning

Chuck Hagel stumbled Thursday during questioning on Iran, inadvertently saying the Obama administration supports “containment” and calling the country an “elected legitimate government.”

"I support the president's strong position on containment, as I have said," the former Republican senator from Nebraska told the Senate Armed Services Committee considering his nomination for Defense secretary.

Text Size

Hagel: Not defined by single vote

POLITICO LIVE: Who to watch in hearing

The statement differed from his prepared opening statement, where he said: "I am fully committed to the president’s goal of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and — as I’ve said in the past — all options must be on the table to achieve that goal.”

The Obama administration supports preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, rather than containing it.

“As you know, our policy is prevention, not containment,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Fox News on Tuesday. “We have, through the hard work we’ve undertaken with the international community, imposed the toughest set of sanctions — international and bilateral — on any country.”

Later, Hagel, who was being questioned by Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.), was passed a note informing him of his mistake, and he offered a correction.

"I misspoke and said I supported the president's position on containment. If I said that, I meant to say we don't have a position on containment," Hagel said.

But even that was not clear enough. Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) stepped in to clarify further.

"We do have a position on containment, and that is we do not favor containment," Levin said. "I just wanted to clarify the clarify."

Asked about Hagel's remarks at the White House, press secretary Jay Carney said, “The fact is we judge Iran on its behavior. They are consistently in violation of their United Nations obligations, their international obligations, and because of that they are enduring the most intense sanctions regime in history."

In addressing Iran, Hagel said that the country was "a member of the United Nations. Almost all of our allies have embassies in Iran ... [It is] an elected, legitimate government, whether we agree or not."

A Senate Republican aide reached out soon after the statement, pointing out that the Senate had voted 94-0 to pass the Menendez-Kirk amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act in 2012.

It said, in part: "It shall be the policy of the United States ... to deny the government of Iran the ability to continue to oppress the people of Iran and to use violence and executions against pro-democracy protesters and regime opponents ... [and] to fully and publicly support efforts made by the people of Iran to promote the establishment of basic freedoms that build the foundation for the emergence of a freely elected, open and democratic political system."

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) pressed Hagel on those terms, and Hagel walked back his previous comments.

"I want to make sure that your statement earlier today with regard to whether Iran is legitimate... I can understand if you meant [that] it's a legal entity that has international relations and has diplomatic relations and is a member of the U.N., but I do not see Iran or the Iranian government as a legitimate government,” Gillibrand said.

And Hagel replied: "Thank you, senator. What I meant to say, should have said, [is that Iran is] recognizable. It is recognized by the United Nations, most of our allies have embassies there. That's what I should have said."